Trump challenged for suggesting he pressured Ford to return jobs from Mexico

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is getting called out for suggesting he helped convince Ford to move jobs from Mexico back to Ohio.

Fellow GOP presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich was the first to jump on Trump’s tweet Saturday claiming that “word is” Ford was going to cancel a project in Mexico “because of my constant badgering.”

Kasich countered that the decision was years in the making.

"Our country needs real leadership and not empty, false rhetoric. Working as a TEAM, we brought Ford production jobs back from Mexico to Ohio years ago," Kasich said in a statement.

Ford Motor Co. confirmed that it, indeed, decided to move some truck operations back to Ohio in 2011 -- weighing in on the bragging-rights dispute and Twitter battle ahead of the third GOP primary debate set for Wednesday.

"Ford has not spoken with Mr. Trump, nor have we made any changes to our plans,” a company spokesman said Monday. “We decided to move the F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks to Ohio Assembly in 2011, long before any candidates announced their intention to run for U.S. president.”

The super PAC supporting Kasich, New Day for America, on Monday also circulated a local news report that explained Trump appeared to be confusing two separate projects -- one in which Ford is moving ahead in Mexico and another in Ohio.

The report gave credit to Kasich, saying that as governor in 2011 he supported tax incentives that “cleared the way for the move.”

Kasich is polling at single digits in the 2016 race, while Trump is leading most national polls.

FoxNews.com's Christopher Snyder contributed to this report.